well the byerly is a rough landing board and isn't very forgiving, depending on your size, maybe you need a bigger board, otherwise I suggest getting your legs stronger via weight lifting, I dont get much knee pain. Also, practice makes perfect, make sure you're really flexing those knees upon landing, nothing will tear em up faster than a stiff legged landing

Knee braces? Lift weights? Just bend your knees when you land. Almost hit your butt on the water. That will take most of the pain out. Also lengthen your line and land on the down side of the other wake would save the hard landings into the flats.

I wouldn't advise a knee brace, they are merely a crutch that you will learn to rely on and make your knees weaker...not a good situation. Take the above advice. Try it right now. Do 25 squats one-legged on your left leg, then 25 on your right leg. First of all, it helps balance, and also builds up those small stabilizing muscles. Then do normal squats with weight. My knee doc said only wear my brace until my leg was back to normal...not to wear it as a 'safety' measure once I was healed.

Wouldn't changing his binding placement on the board help as well? I used to have mine all the way out and now I've got them close together and that has helped. I had this problem on my snowboard as well and did the same thing...it has helped.

Im no pro, but I think i've read on here to land with line tention so the force of the landing does not travel through your legs.Keeping the line tention will allow you to keep moving foward and not transfer the impact through your body too the water.

Yeah, definitely strengthen your legs, lower back and abs. Really bend your knees on those landings. Also the right board makes a big difference in how hard your landings will be. You should try the '07 Hyperlite Murray. This board has a huge continuous rocker. This not only gives you insane pop, but also the sweetest landings. You'll be amazed, you can trust me on that one...

Also I would try landing on edge if you can. It makes the landing much more forgiving, because there is less surface area hitting the water. Of course this would be very difficult coming out of some tricks, but just a suggestion.

Sometimes I land really hard and sometimes I don't. I'm still new to this but it seems that the farther out in the flats I am the better and also if I come down a little staggered, meaning my right foot lands first it doesn't hurt as much, compared to landing on both feet and slapping the board to the water.

for flats landings what you need to do is land tail first and on the edge. if you land and just stop edging its going to hurt. the faster your forward momentum when you land also leads to softer landings. lengthening the rope might work also if your at shorter then 75 ft but i ride at 85 ft now and find myself going to the flats almost every jump but its on purpose

The knee pain is probably tendonitis a.k.a. "jumpers knee". Probably super common in wakeboarding, but most often seen in basketball players. I'm no doctor, but I think it's kinda like tennis elbow in your knee. It's caused by too much repetitive jumping placing strain on the tendon over your knee cap.

I read that the way to correct this long term is:

a) Being more flexible/stretching your quads. If your quads are tight, then it makes your tendons have to stretch when you land and bend your legs. This is what causes jumpers knee.

b) Get stronger legs. Build up your level of activity gradually until your body is accustomed to it. You might have the aerobic endurance to ride all day, but you have to build up the leg strength to match. Even if your legs don't feel tired, they may not be up to the task, passing the strain and loads into your knees.

c) Wear a knee strap. Not a knee brace, that is a crutch as others have said. You see a lot of b-ball players wearing neoprene straps under their knee caps or a thin neo sock with a pad under the knee cap over their knee. This is to help reduce the strain on the knee cap.

Sometimes having too wide or too narrow of a stance can put extra pressure on your knees. The same with the angles.

I had really bad knee problems one summer a few years back, so I messed around with my stance, went narrower and less ducked out...now they don't bother me anymore, but I also try to get more height and go wake-to-wake now vs. landing in the flats.

Oh and another thing...some boards DEFINITELY land softer than others.

dude just ride alot more and maybe even speed the boat up allittle, set the line back farther and clear the trougth( i think thats how its spelt) you land in the trougth its gonna hurt your knees so eaither clear it or land on the downside of the wake. give it a go

Buy a slingshot board, check out the review under the main wakeboarding discussion board. This is the only board that I am comfortable on when I want to go as big as I can. The landings on their boards do not compare to any other boards out there.